Zombie houses

A view of an empty building at the corner of Balltown Road and Union Street in Schenectady. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

You see them in every city – abandoned houses. I’ve been working at the Times Union for 12 years, and the same empty houses line the route through Arbor Hill along Henry Johnson Blvd now as they did in 2002.

A bill in the legislature supported by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would force banks and other mortgage lenders to maintain vacant properties even before they’ve finished foreclosing on them. It would also require banks to notify borrowers that they are able to stay in their properties until foreclosure is complete, and empower the state to create a registry of these zombie properties.

High-rise condominiums will bring in thousands of new city of Albany residents. City residents who pay taxes and spend their discretionary income in the city of Albany.

High-rise condominiums also make the city of Albany an desirable place to live which will attract more people to move to the city of Albany. More people who will buy up distressed properties and rehab them to live in.

This is a formula that has worked wonders in city after city all across the United States.

And it can work here if the city of Albany Democrats lose their fear of suburban Republicans moving into the city of Albany.

Feel free to pack up and move to Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, or Columbus any time now. Nobody’s keeping you here against your will, are they? Blink twice if you need us to send help.

Not to mention the fact that every single time you do this, you pick cities that are much bigger than Albany (even Grand Rapids is twice as large and twice as populous), therefore these monstrosities don’t look so out of place and they have enough people to put in them. Your point might actually be halfway valid if you were able to find cities the same size as Albany that are teeming with condo skyscrapers. I suspect you cannot.

(And that’s not even touching your political paranoia, but that’s a topic for a different blog…)